I think that being a responder to this disaster helped me in my decision on a career. Next year I will retire from the police department here in Tulsa after 27 years of service.
I was stationed on the Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock a buoytender at the Coast Guard Station in Miami Beach on Dec. 29,1972. I was awakened and told that we were going to the Coast Guard Air Station because an Airplane had crashed in the Everglades. I remember the drive to the air station because the guy driving the car was going over 100 miles per hour. When we got to the air station they put us on helicopters and flew us to the crash site. The helicopter that I was on didn't land they just got close to the ground above the saw grass and we were told to jump out. When I hit the ground I was knee deep in mud. I also remember the strong smell of jet fuel. We had one flashlight between two of us and we were told to look for people who were still alive.
I was only 18 years old and I had never seen a dead body. That all changed that night. We helped everyone that we could. As daylight came and they started marking the locations of bodies we were taken to the levee by airboat.
This was an experience that I will never forget.
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